TravelingDiva1

It has been awhile. Testing

This is the same question I currently have. Looking to purchase airfare for our Asian cruise in April. The tickets just recently became available this past week and the price is around $1500(IND to SIN and Tokyo to IND). I don't know if I should wait or not :confused:

The transfer works excelent, Tommy was waitng for us outside the port (otherwise you have to pay the port fee, but you can walk)

They have a new sedan car, Tommy can talk perfect English and he is a great guy, honest and helpful.

Hoi An, is my favorite place in Vietnam, hundreds of colonial buildings, local markets, colors, flavours and is just really nice.

Let me know if you need anything else, if you contact Tommy give my name Felipe from Chile.

Regards

Felipe

Good information! I was wondering about the Chan May pickup in regards to the walk.

I will be back again in Hoian in mid July and have already booked Tommy Dao for tours and transfers- he has added some different and interesting itineraries and I'm looking forward to seeing him again. He is a really lovely young man with an incredibly nice personality.

He makes sightseeing in Hoian, Hue and Danang so much fun.

 

he has also added a Facebook page here where you can see some of the tours he's taking..

https://www.facebook.com/tommydaotravel

Thanks for the info and recommendation! FB page was very helpful. I'll be in contact with him soon!

Have you (or anyone) used him from the Chan May port?

Thanks for posting this information! Please let us know how it went when you return in January. I'm going to contact him about this same itinerary in April!

Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to checking some of these off the list in April!!;)

Hi,

 

I have asked a similar question in the main forum but people recommended that I try this forum for answers.

We had been to Florence and Pisa. We wanted to tour the surround areas. Do you know of a reputable shore excursions company that you can suggest/recommend for leaving out of Livorno?

 

Thank you.

In May, we used Simona with Travel Tuscany for Cruise. She was born, raised, and currently resides in Livorno, so she is very knowledgeable of the town and the surrounding Tuscany region. During our tour of Pisa and Florence, she offered to take us through the Tuscan vineyards, so I'm sure she can make suggestions for you. Her email is SimonaBagnoli@gmail.com. She drives a new, clean Mercedes van and offers free wifi. Her English is good as well.

Also, have you considered visiting Lucca? It's a popular destination after Pisa and Florence.

Unfortunately I had a bad experience with them. I booked a private tour from the port of Rome but nobody was there waiting for us. Not only I've lost my down payment, I sent an email asking for a refund, still waiting for a reply. It seems like this lady is prompt answering some kind of emails, not some others.

Very interesting! We also had a bad experience in Rome with them in May. No one was there waiting for us at the pier or the port gate either. Another tour company ended up assisting us. Beware, she will try to lie and make up excuses as to why no one was there to pick you up. I hope you get your refund. :(

Never done a ship excursion. Have always used private local operators with no problems. Worst case scenario, the good thing about an European cruise is the ease of catching a train to the next port if the ship is missed. ;). I'm sure everything will be fine! Enjoy your cruise!

Thank you for posting that! I get that they had a bad experience. I was on the verge of cancelling because of them. But after a phone call as well as a personal email from the president of the company, I have kept my reservation and have high hopes that in 3 weeks I'm going to have an excellent tour.

There are many different types of tours that they offer, and when their numbers got high they had to up the size of their bus. That, in turn, affected their tour.

I think you're referring to the excursion I was on in May. The above 2 posters are referencing the Rome On Your Own tour that is totally different than what we had.

In regards to our excursion, I can understand about the minibus, but this should have been communicated or stated in the voucher. It wasn't, so that is why it became an issue and complaints arose. We were not aware that we would encounter different pickup and drop off points fifteen minutes away. This is also part of the reason why two members of our group were left. However, the minibus issue was only a portion of a disastrous excursion.

We used Smart cruise tours for five excursions in May while in on a cruise in the Mediterranean and they were terrific. They worked with us all the way to plan and accommodate the places we wanted to see but were not part of the set tour. We were a group of 4 on three excursions, a group of six on another and a group of seven on another. Guess you had a bad day. It really depends on how much you try to see in one day. If you squeeze too much in for one day you will be disappointed. Julia always let us know if were trying to plan too much for one day.

 

Funny that you say you read poor reviews. While we were researching tour operators we found good reviews. No tour company is perfect but there were a lot more good reviews than bad.

 

May you have better luck next time you plan excursions.

 

Larry

For this particular excursion that CupKayke was referencing, our itinerary was not an issue. Julia confirmed our itinerary AND we even added two EXTRA hours onto our tour to allow extra time for the Vatican. Our ship was in port from 7-9pm so time wasn't really an issue for us.

The major problem was that SCT forgot about our tour and no one was there to pick us up from the ship(per the confirmed itinerary/voucher) or the port gate. Another tour company at the gate assisted us by calling SCT. The rep told us she had worked with SCT before and was familiar with company. After several calls she realized we had indeed been forgotten and she became upset as well. She was able to find us a minibus for our group of 19 resulting in a 45 minute late start. It snowballed from there.

Our voucher indicated we would have a tour LEADER/ASSISTANT who would "assist travelers with basic information about sites, and general information, or suggestions." (directly from voucher) We simply had a translator for the driver as he spoke no English. No information or suggestions were given and somehow a 9 hour planned itinerary only allowed for visits to only 3 sites(Vatican, Colosseum, and Trevi Fountain). This is not including travel time as we left the port at 8:45am and returned at 8:00pm.

We also lost 2 group members after the Vatican stop. I don't completely fault SCT for that as I think it was a mix of being given bad directions, misunderstanding, and being unfamiliar with Rome.

Thanks! Was this booked through Athens Tours Greece, or another company?

This vast majority of this thread is recommending PK Travel/Athens By Taxi/Minibus owned by Paul Kalomiris. If you want info on the company you are inquiring about I suggest type the name in the search bar or looking them up on Trip Advisor. ;)

Thanks for sharing. Looks like we wil be booking with them.

Great!!! You won't be disappointed ! The communication via email is very prompt. He even offers free WiFi which was an unexpected bonus. ;)

We will be in Ephesus in July and I'm real close to booking with Ephesus Shuttle and I have one question. Is it worth the extra $10 to tour the Terrace Houses? Thanks in advance!

 

Debra

Yes, very neat to see how they lived!!!! There are steps involved, fyi.

Hi Dubrovnik Travel Lady,

Just reporting back to say thank you for all your help. We visited Dubrovnik earlier this month and enjoyed it! Lovely town and very clean. The weather was cloudy with a few sprinkles here and there...nothing major. I had planned on taking a taxi to the cable car, but we got talked into a panoramic tour via taxi instead. :rolleyes: We enjoyed it though. We then walked the old town. I did try some of the sugar covered almonds you had mentioned several pages back....DELICIOUS!!!

Have a great one and thank again! :D

Here is a recent review of Ephesus Shuttle that some of my roll callers used.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1848309&page=4

My group also used Ephesus Deluxe and had Mahmet(I think that was his name. He told us to just call him Matt because it was easier for us to pronounce). The tour was great, but we did have a carpet demo stop at the end. We were given a nice Turkish lunch beforehand. The demo was interesting and we didn't experience any pushy salesmen so it wasn't that bad.

And no skanks either I bet!! :D

You are correct! LOL

:eek: wow! At least they provided us lunch at our carpet demo. LOL

Hey Shoto!!! Loving the review!

Another vote for PK Travel or AthensByTaxi.com. We had Paul for a full day tour of Athens for a group of 12. Very informative, professional, and also allowed some free time to ourselves for eating and shopping. One of the best tours of the cruise!

JUST returned from a cruise of the Med. My group of 7 used Sicily With Mario and toured with Ignacio. He was GREAT. We chose to do the Taormina and Catelmola tour(#1). He was very informative, and also allowed some time on our own in Taormina. We had a nice lunch at a mother/son owned restaurant Ignacio recommended in Castelmola with an awesome view of Mount Eta. The tour ended with a brief tour of the Messina highlights. HIGHLY recommend. http://www.sicilywithmario.com

Great post! :D

This is the first year that they have sailed with Carnival. They previously used RCCL as indicated from other posters. This is also the first year of doing it in April.

Yay! So glad you're doing a review. This cruise has came up as a possibility for a fam/friends cruise next year. It already sounds like a bad idea. Can't wait for more.

There's a tractor that will take you to the cookout on HMC. You can also walk. No shuttle bus. Light shopping.

Grand Turk: DEFINITE beach day. There is not much to see past the cruise center.